The typical “good” student is always seen as the one who sits quietly, takes notes, and aces tests. The only time the “good student” talks is to ask valid questions (as if any questions are valid or invalid). This is how the commonsense understanding of school and curriculum would define a “good student” at least, however, only a small group of students can benefit from this. Kevin Kumashiro talks about the ideal “good student” as someone that was “completing certain…
Adam Greteman, in his article “Helping Kids Turn Out Queer: Queer Theory in Art Education” addresses the fear that has been seen within classrooms and school administrations regarding queer theory and its influence within curriculum, particularly in arts education. Greteman (2017) first begins by outlining the different meanings that are associated with the word “queer” itself, as it is seen as a complicated term that “can be empowering and disempowering depending on its use” (p. 197). He then goes on…
Something that I think every student, whether that be in university, high school, or even middle school, can relate to is the anxiety that comes with test taking. There is so much pressure placed on students to ace all of their tests. I was a good student in high school, yet when tests came I had so much anxiety about messing up because the way that schools treat tests caused me to feel like I wouldn’t be a good student…
Kumashiro addresses commonsense in both education and daily life. He explains it as the things that both he and the residents of the village he stays in in Nepal have taken for granted, such as eating three meals a day, which is the norm in most of North America but is seen as strange in Nepal. He even says that ways of cooking and the ingredients used were different in Nepal from what he was used to and it made…